Conventional communication systems allow the user of a device, such as a personal computer or mobile device to conduct voice or video calls over a packet-based computer network such as the Internet. Such communication systems include voice or video over internet protocol (VoIP) systems. These systems are beneficial to the user as they are often of significantly lower cost than conventional fixed line or mobile cellular networks. This may particularly be the case for long-distance communication. To use a VoIP system, the user installs and executes client software on their device. The client software sets up the VoIP connections as well as providing other functions such as registration and user authentication. In addition to voice communication, the client may also set up connections for other communication media such as instant messaging (“IM”), SMS messaging, file transfer and voicemail.
Recently, internet capabilities and functionality has been integrated into user devices such as games consoles arranged to be connected to a television set of other (e.g. large-screen) display means, television sets themselves (often referred to as a “Smart TV”), set-top boxes arranged to be connected to a television set etc. . . . This includes the integration of client software into a games console, television set, set-top box (or similar) to enable communications over a packet-based computer network such as the Internet. This integration of client software allows a large, high-resolution screen to be utilised for video calling by outputting video signals to a near-end user received from a far-end user. Furthermore, significant processing power can be provided in user devices such as set-top boxes, TVs etc. particularly as the power requirements for a large, mains electricity powered consumer electronics device are less stringent than, for example mobile devices. This can enable a full range of features to be included in the embedded communication client, such as high quality voice and video encoding of video data received from a camera connected to the user device or from other similar image input means.